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I have inexplicably spent a weekend in Budleigh Salterton.
Well, actually, it's for a reason, I'm at Sundown - a demo-scene party, basically 70 or more blokes (and about 4 women) hunched over laptops, creating demos and music and such :)
There was a quiz in which 4 intelligent, talented programmers and musicians had to batter the shit out of each other with giant inflatable hammers while stuffing their mouths with Pringles covered in 400,000 scoville chilli sauce. Having just performed hilarious cover versions of Anarchy in the UK.
Some crushingly clever bastards playing Bukaroo wearing oven mittens.
Observant readers will have lost the Game.
I took a track to enter into the streaming music competition (will upload shortly), where I came second :)
Today, though was a bit of a massive culture crash, and everything went a rather dark.
Having spent a long weekend surrounded by painfully clever, wonderful people, I've crashed back to my iPhone dev project, in which I've had what could be described as another bad fucking day. Achingly slow progress.
We've got months left on the project, but long years of experience have taught me that those months should be used to get ahead of schedule. Losing a week to slow progress is indescribably frustrating and a mixture of shit results plus the emotional comedown of getting back to work after an excellent weekend put my head in a shocking spin.
Quite randomly, the party was in an obscure southern town where I have much-loved family and have holidayed lots as a kid, I don't get to see my family enough and Corben is abroad with his mom, so I've decided to stay down here for a few extra days as it would be ridiculous to get down here and not see them all.
I hacked away until late evening, failing to spend any time with anyone and looking grumpy, then took a few hours to see my grandad, who's getting on a bit. As grim as it sounds, he's old and I won't get to see him too many more times, I'm sure. We had a good old chat and I showed him photos of the wedding. When I got back, my aunt had (sadly, but entirely reasonably) gone to bed.
So, i'm staying down here for another few days. Fuck it. I've got an open return ticket and it's peaceful down here. If I can't sort my job shit out here, it won't be because of the environment.
In some ways it feels like trying to hack here, in someone else's house, is adding to the existing hassle (new OS, new SDK, new language), but much as I love them, my housemates do have a tendency to coax me into getting trashed when I should either work or take it easy.
Just finished reading Ringworld, belatedly, about to dig into the sequel.
I miss Kirsten and Corben like fuck. I hate it when the depression rears up and makes a tough week even worse.
That said, this evening has been one in which having a moderate drink has had a positive effect and taken my mind away from how useless and depressed I felt earlier today.
Nattering with this branch of the family, even though we're from quite different walks of life, has a calming effect on me. I love my close family, but we're very high intensity, it's good to be with people who make me feel comfortable, but who don't push my rage buttons.
Can't seem to get Kirsten on the phone or on-line. Distance and technology and convenience always fail when you need the connection most painfully.
I want to be surrounded by friendly, clever people again, stimulating interactions in a competitive, but safe environment. I thrive there. It's a good old change from living in the DeathStar.
Post party crash, man.
There are a lot of parallels between the goth and demo scenes, and without maligning alternative culture, this party coaxed me into being someone I was much more OK with, a geeky show-off getting off on talking technology all weekend. I woke up with hangovers, thinking I'd been a bit much, to the same smiling faces, still smiling, still interested in the next day's conversation.
We all brought shiny things to show and tell and were all quite enraptured by each other's crazy toys. Bravado and ego were still about, but there were semi-autistic fuckers who'd braved the train to Devon to show strangers the code they'd worked on for months, and everyone appreciated the cool and crazy genius that was displayed.
I felt like shit most of today, but I'm OK now. Going to download another book and chug some sci-fi. I miss my bird and my kid.
Well, actually, it's for a reason, I'm at Sundown - a demo-scene party, basically 70 or more blokes (and about 4 women) hunched over laptops, creating demos and music and such :)
There was a quiz in which 4 intelligent, talented programmers and musicians had to batter the shit out of each other with giant inflatable hammers while stuffing their mouths with Pringles covered in 400,000 scoville chilli sauce. Having just performed hilarious cover versions of Anarchy in the UK.
Some crushingly clever bastards playing Bukaroo wearing oven mittens.
Observant readers will have lost the Game.
I took a track to enter into the streaming music competition (will upload shortly), where I came second :)
Today, though was a bit of a massive culture crash, and everything went a rather dark.
Having spent a long weekend surrounded by painfully clever, wonderful people, I've crashed back to my iPhone dev project, in which I've had what could be described as another bad fucking day. Achingly slow progress.
We've got months left on the project, but long years of experience have taught me that those months should be used to get ahead of schedule. Losing a week to slow progress is indescribably frustrating and a mixture of shit results plus the emotional comedown of getting back to work after an excellent weekend put my head in a shocking spin.
Quite randomly, the party was in an obscure southern town where I have much-loved family and have holidayed lots as a kid, I don't get to see my family enough and Corben is abroad with his mom, so I've decided to stay down here for a few extra days as it would be ridiculous to get down here and not see them all.
I hacked away until late evening, failing to spend any time with anyone and looking grumpy, then took a few hours to see my grandad, who's getting on a bit. As grim as it sounds, he's old and I won't get to see him too many more times, I'm sure. We had a good old chat and I showed him photos of the wedding. When I got back, my aunt had (sadly, but entirely reasonably) gone to bed.
So, i'm staying down here for another few days. Fuck it. I've got an open return ticket and it's peaceful down here. If I can't sort my job shit out here, it won't be because of the environment.
In some ways it feels like trying to hack here, in someone else's house, is adding to the existing hassle (new OS, new SDK, new language), but much as I love them, my housemates do have a tendency to coax me into getting trashed when I should either work or take it easy.
Just finished reading Ringworld, belatedly, about to dig into the sequel.
I miss Kirsten and Corben like fuck. I hate it when the depression rears up and makes a tough week even worse.
That said, this evening has been one in which having a moderate drink has had a positive effect and taken my mind away from how useless and depressed I felt earlier today.
Nattering with this branch of the family, even though we're from quite different walks of life, has a calming effect on me. I love my close family, but we're very high intensity, it's good to be with people who make me feel comfortable, but who don't push my rage buttons.
Can't seem to get Kirsten on the phone or on-line. Distance and technology and convenience always fail when you need the connection most painfully.
I want to be surrounded by friendly, clever people again, stimulating interactions in a competitive, but safe environment. I thrive there. It's a good old change from living in the DeathStar.
Post party crash, man.
There are a lot of parallels between the goth and demo scenes, and without maligning alternative culture, this party coaxed me into being someone I was much more OK with, a geeky show-off getting off on talking technology all weekend. I woke up with hangovers, thinking I'd been a bit much, to the same smiling faces, still smiling, still interested in the next day's conversation.
We all brought shiny things to show and tell and were all quite enraptured by each other's crazy toys. Bravado and ego were still about, but there were semi-autistic fuckers who'd braved the train to Devon to show strangers the code they'd worked on for months, and everyone appreciated the cool and crazy genius that was displayed.
I felt like shit most of today, but I'm OK now. Going to download another book and chug some sci-fi. I miss my bird and my kid.
